MOTHER 2
They should. They’re down on us like a ton of bricks if we forget our license fee. Are you winning?
The green light beside them starts flashing. SALLY’s voice is heard over the speakers.
SALLY
Lovely. I’d just like to go once again, if that’s alright. I think we had a couple of scripts in
there. Would it help if you had a stand?
INT. HALLWAY/KITCHEN - FLASHBACK
JOHN sticks a post-it label on the downstairs toilet door that reads ‘LOO’.
JOHN
I read somewhere that you should paint all the doors different colours.
JOHN wanders into the kitchen where MOTHER sits at the table reading an NHS leaflet entitled – ‘Coping with Memory Loss’.
MOTHER Why?
JOHN
So that he knows the blue one’s the loo. The red one’s his
bedroom…etc.…
MOTHER
Well I can’t see that working. He has trouble enough without having to remember what colour everything is.
JOHN scribbles on another note and sticks it to the back door. ‘DO NOT GO OUT’.
MOTHER
It’s like being back at nursery – everything labeled.
JOHN
They said he might wander.
JOHN looks around the room. All the cupboards and drawers are labeled: Plates. Cutlery. Mugs. Tea. Coffee…
JOHN What else does it say?
MOTHER
We’re meant to put away all sharp objects.
JOHN
In case he stabs someone? MOTHER
For his own sake, I think, more than ours. (She reads from the leaflet) ‘A person with memory loss may at times be confused or disorientated. It’s therefore a good idea to safety proof the house.’
JOHN
They were saying at the hospital that he’s likely to become upset as well.
MOTHER
There’s nothing new in that. JOHN
Really?
MOTHER
He’s just good at hiding it.
INT. CONTROL ROOM DAY
The scene continues as we see the radio script itself in close-up. However, as we hear their voices it becomes apparent that their conversation differs from the dialogue as written.
JOHN (O/S)
I wish you’d told me. You could’ve phoned.
MOTHER (O/S) He wouldn’t have wanted me to. Besides, you’re always busy.
INT. DINING ROOM NIGHT
Rain streaks down the windowpane, lit by a streetlamp outside. As the camera moves slowly from the watery shadows on the wall, it reveals JOHN sat at the end of his FATHER’s bed watching him sleep. He listens to him breathing. In the silence of the room a clock ticks.
INT. SITTING ROOM NIGHT - FLASHBACK
A projector screen is pulled from a long metal tube, wiping the previous scene. JOHN clips it onto its stand and walks back across the room. He moves various ornaments, including a carriage clock, from a nest of coffee tables and sets up the cine-projector. He flicks off the lights and switches on the projector.
Kodachrome images of two young children chasing each other in a park fill the screen – JOHN and LUCY aged 2 & 4. Light spills across JOHN’s face as he watches the silent movie. MOTHER appears smoking a cigarette – she glances at the camera, chatting to the unseen cameraman – FATHER. The scene changes abruptly as it cuts from summer to winter.
JOHN and LUCY are pulled along on a sledge by MOTHER. They laugh as they pass close to the camera and into their FATHER’s long shadow, cast on the deep snow.
JOHN sits on the back seat of a car. He is smiling. As the camera pans we catch a glimpse of another child sitting beside him. This is MATTHEW. The colour suddenly fades in intensity – dots appear on the screen before the film slips through the gate and the frantic flapping of celluloid is heard as the picture runs out, leaving a blurred shadow of the rotating spool.
INT. CUTTING ROOM
The footage counter clicks - 7 becomes 8. JOHN stares at the camera. A wavering horizontal line stretches across the screen marking a 24 frame dissolve as the sound of flapping film begins to change to the pulsating drone of a helicopter’s rota blades.
A splicer blade cuts a piece of magnetic tape – the sound of the helicopter stops abruptly. Blue spacer is placed alongside the remaining trim and tape stretched over the join. A white-gloved finger smoothes the edit. Another piece of magnetic tape is lined up in the gang of the
Compeditor. The clamps are clicked into place and the wheel is turned.
The sound of shrieking gulls is heard as negative images of white waves running up a black beach flicker on the Compeditor’s tiny screen. As the speed slows so the pitch changes and the cries become deeper – almost human.
INT. BBC STUDIO DAY
The cries continue. The VU meters on the mixing desk peak - the needles dip into the red.
SALLY What’s that?
SIMON
Sorry – we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Stick it on two, Martha.
MARTHA
Already have. You’ve also got a ticking clock on three.
SIMON Cheers.
JOHN sits listening with his head in his hands.
SALLY Okay?
JOHN Fine.
SALLY
Alright then – moving forward.
Scene 17. John, Father and Mother.
The actors wave through the glass.
SALLY (CONT.) Oh you’re all there. Splendid.
JOHN follows SALLY through to studio where the three actors stand waiting.
SALLY
So this is John’s first attempt to try and encourage his father to remember. And I think what needs to come across, Dan, is that sense of frustration. Here is a man who cannot remember what he had for tea, what he did five minutes ago.
FATHER 2
Sure. And until this moment he’d been perfectly active – run his own business…
SALLY
Exactly. And it’s obviously
upsetting for Mother too, to see him like this. A week ago they were making plans - then bang!
MOTHER 2